USU Eastern Eagle wins statewide awards

Eagle staffers display off the awards they won at the Better Newspapers Competition.

In the second year of membership in the Utah Press Association, USU Eastern's Eagle newspaper continued to add accolades to its "wall of fame" as the staff brought home four first-place awards, two second-place awards and five third-place awards at the annual winter convention in Springville Saturday night. The awards were won in the Better Newspaper Competition sponsored each year by UPA.

Eagle editor KC Smurthwaite, Boise, Idaho, won first place for Best Sports Column for his "Smurf Turf" series while sports editor David Osborne Jr., West Jordan, won second place for his "Next on the Tee" sports columns. Daylan Jones, Layton, won first place for designing the Best Sports Page and third places for Best Photo Page, Best Advertising Idea and Best Staff Produced Ad.

Kate Johnson, Spring Glen, won first place for Best Front Page design while Jessa Love Adams, Pleasant Grove, won first place for Best Sports Photo.

The design skills of Valeria Moncada , Price, won her second place for Best Feature or Community Lifestyles Page while the staff garnered a third place finish for The Best News Series on the death of Men's Head Basketball Coach Brad Barton. The staff also won third place for the best news photograph of the men's basketball team surrounding their coach's casket at his funeral.

"The best part about winning any award in the UPA contest is that USU-CEU students compete against professionals in the journalism field. The Eagle has the smallest circulation of all the UPA member newspapers with 1,000 papers printed. Kudos to The Eagle staff," adviser Susan Polster, Ph.D., said. The newspaper was judged on issues from spring 2011 with Mae Goss and Kellie Burke-Gabossi serving as editors; and fall 2011 with Smurthwaite as editor. Polster also attributed much of The Eagle's success to Sun Advocate publisher Rick Shaw who funds the UPA fee for The Eagle. "He proposed and funded our entrance into UPA and for this I am deeply appreciative."

The Eagle was judged in group one of the four newspaper categories that include all weeklies. Group one includes newspapers up to 2,500 in circulation. The college newspapers who are part of UPA include Utah Valley University, Brigham Young University, University of Utah, Weber State University, Utah State University and USUÂ Â Â Eastern. Weber State University won several awards that evening with their editor, Nate Davis, previously serving as sports editor of The Eagle for two years.